Gene Simmons & FBI

Gene Simmons & FBI

MAY 7--The home of a 15-year-old habitué of 4chan was searched last month by FBI agents probing last October’s coordinated denial of service attacks on several web sites affiliated with the rock star Gene Simmons.

The April 27 raid at the Gig Harbor, Washington home of teenager Gunnar Lantz was prompted by a review of computer logs and IP records showing that the online assault against the performer was, in part, launched from the boy’s residence, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Tacoma.

Agents seized the high school student’s laptop during the early-morning raid and questioned him extensively about Simmons, 4chan, and the denial of service attack, according to the boy’s mother. Rhoda Lantz, 44, told TSG that agents--who arrived at her door with guns drawn at 6:40 AM--initially said they were involved in a cyber crime investigation.

But it wasn’t until an agent asked her son if he had a problem with the Kiss star that the boy grasped the nature of the federal inquiry. “Oh, this is about the Gene Simmons attack,” he said, according to his mother.

The targeting of three Simmons web sites was reportedly orchestrated by the shadowy online group Anonymous as part of its “Operation Payback” campaign. The singer apparently angered members of the outfit when he delivered an October 5 speech urging entertainment figures to take legal action against online piracy. “Be litigious,” he advised. “Sue everybody, take their houses, their cars. The music industry was asleep at the wheel and didn't have the balls to sue every freckle-faced kid who downloaded tracks.”

Simmons’s sites were knocked offline in retaliation. After they returned, he posted a message warning the attackers that they would be hunted down by law enforcement officials.

This prompted a second denial of service that lasted four days. The attacks cost Simmons “approximately $20,000 to $25,000 in downtime and costs associated with changing computer servers and website hosts,” according to the affidavit sworn by FBI Agent Scott Love, a cyber crimes investigator assigned to the bureau’s Los Angeles field office.

An FBI analysis of server logs revealed that in the midst of the second attack, a computer in the Lantz home reloaded a Simmons web site 48,471 times during a 47-minute period on the evening of October 19. Such a bombardment of requests often leaves a web site overwhelmed and inaccessible to legitimate traffic.

Rhoda Lantz contended that her son, who was 14 at the time of the denial of service assaults, somehow downloaded a program that “infected” his computer and triggered the attack on the Simmons web sites. She noted that FBI agents said it was, “obvious that my son was not the mastermind,” adding that investigators questioned him about his activity on 4chan, where many Anonymous operations--including denial of service campaigns--have been organized.

Lantz said that agents asked her son whether he “pushed a button” to trigger a program (such as a “Low Orbit Ion Cannon”) that overwhelmed Simmons with traffic. During “Operation Payback” gambits, visitors to 4chan have been provided with instructions on how to download applications that can facilitate their computer’s participation in denial of service attacks.

Lantz, though, was hesitant to discuss her son’s involvement with the notorious web site. “We were instructed not to say anything bad about 4chan,” she said, apparently concerned about the kind of reprisals often visited upon the site’s detractors.

As seen above, Gunnar Lantz’s Facebook page--which carries the nickname “herpderpity”--lists 4chan among the three sites he visits daily. He lists “Trolling” as a favorite sport and includes a drawing of “Smiling Man,” a meme that was spread on 4 chan. Additionally, in response to the question “Who would you rather be your doctor?” Lantz answered “moot,” the pseudonym of Christopher Poole, 4chan’s founder. Above the word “moot” is a photo of what appears to be Poole’s cat.

In light of her son’s age, Rhoda Lantz remarked the FBI can’t really do anything to her child. Complaining that, “my son and I are caught in the middle,” she criticized Simmons for “starting his whole pissing contest” by “popping off like a four-year-old.” (5 pages)

Comments (37)

The thing is, if someone tries to make profit with music not belonging to him, like selling illegaly copied versions of whatever, thats one thing. but music sharing over the internet simply doesnt work that way, noone is making money there. That's y it is called "sharing" not a very popular idea these days i hear ;). So the companies and artists justify their lawsuits against these people with the loss of profit. They argue that the people who download their stuff illegaly would buy it instead, if they were unable to download it, making out some fantasy amount of "loss" just to be able to sue someone with it. Fact is: file sharing is no loss, for them, it simply isn't. Well there are ppl who would buy it instead, true, but most of them simply wouldn't buy it, so there is no loss. On the other hand many ppl discover things this way, this especially includes music or video games. if they couldn't download it somewhere, they wouldn't even know it in the first place. And guess what, some of them will go and buy it in the store if they like it. It's literally the cheapest advertisement you will ever get, since how i mentioned before, NO money involved, and i think this makes it up for those dollars that they assume to loose.
Well now that i pointed this out, u can continue insulting ;), at least thats the spirit of free speech ;)
sorry for being boring, i even had to split it...
so long... P.S. please forgive my bad ortography and grammar, since i am no native English speaker and case sensitivity just doesnt bother me ;). In fact if u find any mistakes, u can keep them

This whole system may seem okay at first glance, but there are some major drawbacks:
1. some chairman decides which art u can buy in music stores, online or anywhere else, what film to watch at the movies, virtually anything you have access to that has its origin on THOUGHTS!!! Seems this includes pretty much everything that is created by man.
This, if used "properly" is very close related to censorship, and im quite sure , no I am entirely sure that it is used that way whenever it seems neccessary to someone who is able to do that. This however violates the right of free speech, which we claim to be a major social accomplishment in our so called civilized world.
2. It lessens the profit for artists, since major labels tend to get the big chew of the profit. They decide which music runs on the radio or on the music television, they decide which movie can be seen on tv. They Own this stuff, and they can decide what to sell and what the conditions are.
Did u ever notice radio stations playing the same songs over and over again? Why do u think is that? Do u think the few Artist u hear on the radio are the only ones making music thats worth listening to? This would be a really lousy performance for mankind i guess, thinking of estimated 7 bill people running around on this planet.
Just to mention a few. Feel free to blow your mind and read some more on similar topics all over the internet, on 4chan for example, maybe reddit, or wiki leaks, or wherever u want, assumed u have a non - censored internet connection ;). Thats where ppl "meet" and talk about this, and thats y these sites have a bad reputation in public. Or do u really think anyone in charge REALLY cares about porn? Besides, who do u think owns tv stations? who do u think decides whats on the news for tomorrow?

i take the freedom to bring this "discussion" back to a more factual level (unless of course you insist on insulting each other, thats okay for me too, well i guess thats freedom of speech). Speaking of freedom, there is the problem with that strange idea called "Intelectual Property", and some ppl decided some time ago, this would be a good way to make more money, to claim some THOUGHTS belong to them (re read that if u didnt get it), and others need to pay for it if they wanna use them. This starts with some trivial things like the progress bar (read this http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20090070699 if u dont believe me, and yeah, there are actually some guys claiming the idea of the progress bar belongs to them and everyone has to pay if he wants to use it) and extends to virtually anything you could claim to be your thought, and yours alone. This naturally includes any form of arts, since usually the root of all arts seems to me thinking about stuff in the first place. Now to some extend i really DO understand this. If u are stealing some inventive idea, and start to make some money with stuff u copied from someone else, really can freak ppl out. Fine for me, and i agree that this shouldn't be allowed. But if it comes to FBI agents storming a 15 year old's room with drawed guns, well imho that takes "freaking out" to the next level.
However, as a result, music industry, lets say some record label for example, owns intelectual property in form of the music created by artists they contracted. In fact, the artist sells his creations to the media company, which now publishes them trying to make some money. In return, the artist gets a fraction of the profit. U can possibly imagine where the lion's share of that goes.

That douchebag Gene Simmons got what he deserved.
Now, I'm a 40 year old married father, and in no way associated with "Anonymous" though I generally support their positions, and I used to be a huge fan of KISS, but Gene's actions with this whole ordeal just reek of greed.
If you've seen his reality show you know what I'm talking about. The KISS merchandising all the way down to KISS coffins... it's sickening.
The kicker of course, is his litigous nature and willingness to alienate former fans like our hero in this case. Spew a giant spitball of vitriol at an even more giant conglomerate of internet geeks on a mission?
Reap what you sow, Mr. Simmons. You *** up and proved your idiocy to the world. Continue down this path and further prove your vindictiveness and further alienate former fans. You have enough money. Embrace the future.

Where the hell can I find this "4Chan" webpage they are talking about??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????DOES ANYONE ON HERE KNOW?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

I appreciate that genuinely good artists do get cut short by piracy. Let's be honest though, the music industry cuts them short a whole lot more. The average salary of a musician when you subtract the glamor (e.g hotel rooms, publicity, on tour perks) is actually that of a fast food server. I shiat you not, do your research into the music industry. He is derping in the wrong direction, not to mention the fact that Mr. Simmons here is really just pissing into the sea!
If people like him care so much about this fraud against their fellow artists, why don't they cut out the middle men? Albeit, half the word are middle men and they don't take kindly to being cut out but we are coming into... actually scrap that, IN an age of high speed information. We can't afford middle men anymore and that's partially what Anon is trying to point out. Do you see them attacking the new wave of direct artist to consumer programs? No. Do you see them attacking iTunes? Etsy? eBay? These methods work and the larger cut goes to the artist. Hell I wouldn't even mind if Anon took out World Vision! Middle men are a thing for the dinosaurs, Simmons and Fox news. Let them wither for we have torrents and seeds to sow!

This wasn't a result of some master hacker from 4chan. Everyone knows all the master hackers are at Ebaum's World. I doubt seriously that anyone at that website could even take down the pathetic website of mister Simmons. E-tards on the other hand could probably do it in about 10 minutes with one hand. Undoubtedly, the only logical explanation is that one of these E-tards hacked a 4chan gold account and distributed this DDoS program probably hiding it in a picture of puddi.

Seems like half these commenters are a very butthurt has-been "musician" who hasn't made any music in decades, or any good music period, and whose entire brief career consisted entirely of clown makeup "shock rock."
Sorry, but I feel no sympathy for Gene. He's a washed up vindictive asshat who wasn't even inconvenienced by having his sites taken down. Does anyone actually visit those sites?

Dumb asses such as yourself are why 4cahn exists defending citizens from outrageous bullshiat they are subjected to regardless of legality. Do they do it is overly harmful, public and disruptive ways? Yeah but that is the point.

And then when the case gets thrown out of court due to lack of evidence that he participated willingly (because lets face it, everything is circumstantial in this case) and the taxpayer gets lumped with the bill, she'll be right back where she started.

Hey there go-getters, Dave Johnson here.
We here at the Federal Bereau of Intelligence have just instated a new emergency phone line in case of Critical Internet Failure! If you ever find a pasty little pencil-necked dweeb is stealing your precious Internet Property, give us a buzz at 1800-KICK-ASS and we'll send the cops straight to that little suckers apartment! Don't worry, we're accredited and licensed in up to 48 states!
Dave Johnson, we're done here.

I agree, billyboy54. The kid's 15, he uses 4chan ffs. The little bastard should have used more proxies! The mom's just as bad, blaming Gene Simmons attempting to downplay the situation imo. Rofl, whateva.

There is nothing illegal about spending time on 4chan. It's a message board, and nothing more. What SOME people talk about there, well that's a whole other thing.
On another note, how do we know he actually did this on pupose? There are plenty of virus' that can make your computer do this, without you even knowing.